Thursday, September 17th, 2014
COASP2014 - Paris - France
Alwaleed Alkhaja, PhD.
Senior Editor - Commissioning & Outreach - QScience.com
(Bloosmbury Qatar Foundation Journals)
@alwaleeed

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Defining MENA and the Arab world
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Research output in the Arab world
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Landscape of open access publishing
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Challenges of open access publishing
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Perspectives....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MENA#mediaviewer/File:MENA.png
M ENA CC B Y-SA 3.0 DanP MK - Own work adapte d from Africa in the World (gre y).svg by TUBS

Text
Countries: 22
Population (Total): 369.8 million 2013
GDP (current US$) : $2.851 trillion 2013

http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/seind14/index.cfm/chapter-4/c4s2.htm

Growth of open access journals from the Arab world in DOAJ

480
Number of open access journals from the Arab world in DOAJ
551 journals from the Arab world
5.5% of total DOAJ journals
1217 journals from United States
(population of 318,736,000)

Number of (Arabic language) open access journals in DOAJ
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1 Journal Arabic online (Historical Kan Periodical) - Egypt
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10 Journals Arabic + English and/or French - Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq,
Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabic
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21 Journals Arabic + other language(s) - India, Iran, Malaysia, Spain,
Turkey, United Kingdom
0.3% of total DOAJ journals published in Arabic
12% of total DOAJ journals published in Portuguese

Number of open access repositories in Arab world
Registry of Open Access Repositories
Egypt
Algeria
Saudi Arabia
Sudan
Morocco
Tunisia
Lebanon
Qatar
1
1
3
2
11
7
7
5
37 OA repositories in Arab world
Belgium = 34
Greece = 33
Malaysia =33
Mexico =33

Number of open access repositories in MENA
Data provided by: ROAR & Open DOAR

Number of open access repositories in Europe
Data provided by: ROAR & Open DOAR

Research funders' open access policies in the Arab world
Number of policies from Arab World = 0
Europe = 130
North America = 29
Asia = 4
Oceania = 3

Challenges of open access publishing in the Arab world
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Low number of (Arabic) open access journals
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Low number of open access repositories
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Absence of research funders' open access policies

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Study: Reality of open Access movement to information in Egyptian
Universities: Cairo University model, Iman Hussein 2013*
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Lack of faculty ’s OA awareness
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OA articles not recognized in assessment for academic promotion
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General fear of intellectual theft /copyright infringement
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Lack of policies and/or mandates for OA publishing or selfarchiving.
*10th Cairo University Scientific Conference for Libraries, Documents, and Information (Article in Arabic): http://bit.ly/1xxkIum

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Survey: ‘Academic open access publishing and its role in Arabic online content enrichment ’ Abdullah Almubariz, Imam Muhammad ibn
Saud Islamic University:
36% disagree about publishing research in OA journals
skeptical about peer review process
OA publications not considered in promotion
AFLI publication (Article in Arabic): imamur.com/files/12.doc (Word File)

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Study: Study of the Views of a Sample of Faculty Members at the
University of Mosul, Aldabbagh and Al Obidy 2012 (in Arabic)
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Majority faculty surveyed reluctant to publish OA due to lack of awareness
82 % 45%
unsure of quality of OA journal editorial board members fearful of intellectual theft / copyright infringement
OA articles not recognized in academic career promotion
Article in Arabic: http://www.iasj.net/iasj?func=fulltext&aId=81807

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Survey, Syrian Researcher ’s Views on Open Access to Information.
Damascus University Magazine.
40% 25% 20% worried about intellectual theft / copyright infringement believe OA published articles not recognized by their institutes academic committees do not know how to publish OA
10% consider OA publishing would lower impact of their research
5% do not know how to archive work http://www.damascusuniversity.edu.sy/mag/human/images/stories/3-2013/a/483-510.pdf

79%
Have not published in OA journals
*
69%
Have not published in OA journals
+
71%
* AFLI publication (Article in Arabic): imamur.com/files/12.doc (Word File)
+10th Cairo University Scientific Conference for Libraries, Documents, and Information (Article in Arabic): http://bit.ly/1xxkIum
# http://usir.salford.ac.uk/29413/1/Zuwainah_Thesis_Final_2013.pdf

“ In many developing countries still, the monthly salary of a senior science faculty (Professor) in public sector institutes is less than
$1000 / month. How is it possible the researchers from the developing countries can publish their papers in such journals?
”
Meo, S. A. "Open access journals: open for rich, closed for poor." Journal of the College of
Physicians and Surgeons--Pakistan: JCPSP 24.8 (2014): 611.

Challenges of open access publishing in the Arab world: article processing charges fee waivers
Low-income
Comoros
Somalia
Lower-middleincome
Syria
Egypt
Palestine
Morocco
Djibouti
Sudan
Yemen
Mauritania
Upper-middleincome
Libya
Tunisia
Lebanon
Jordan
Algeria
Iraq
High-income
Qatar
Saudi Arabia
Kuwait
United Arab Emirates
Oman
Bahrain
*based on Gross national income per capita 2013 (US Dollars), Atlas method

Challenges of open access publishing in the Arab world
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Low number of (Arabic) open access journals
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Low number of open access repositories
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Absence of research funders' open access policies

Challenges of open access publishing in the Arab world
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Low number of (Arabic) open access journals
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Low number of open access repositories
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Absence of research funders' open access policies
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Lack of OA awareness
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Lack of institutional encouragement to OA
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Skepticism about quality/impact
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Inability to pay article processing charges

What does the Arab world need for open access to flourish?
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Improve OA awareness
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More OA journals for Arabic content
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Establishment of more institutional repositories
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Institutional support for OA - (policies, mandates)
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Research funder support for OA (policies, mandates, repositories)

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Open Access week Egypt
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Open Access week Saudi Arabia
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Open access week Qatar
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Open access week Tunisia

- To disseminate the benefits of publishing in open access.
- To promote the practices of open access in the Arab and other world
- To attract and convince the concept of information for all.
- To provide a platform for the authors and publishers for open access publishing
- To encourage the idea of Book Endowment
Website: aioablogspot.com
Twitter: aioatweets Slide courtesy of Sulieman S. Alshuhri. PhD

(Declaration of Riyadh for Free Access to Scientific and
Technical Information)
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First Arabic declaration in support of OA by the participants in the Second Gulf-Maghreb Scientific
Congress (Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, February 25-26,
2006),
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Calls for free access to all scientific literature on the internet. It supports the idea that scientific literature should be disseminated without any financial, legal, or technological barriers except those concerned with the intellectual property for the author.
http://openaccess.inist.fr/?Nidae-Al-Ryadh (Arabic, English, French translations

Rise of institutional mandates? 2014...
ROARMAP: Registry of Open Access
Repositories Mandatory Archiving
Policies
AlgeriaInstitutional Mandate
Date Deposited: 29 Jun 2014
Saudi Arabia
Institutional Mandate
Date Deposited: 3 Sept 2014

6 open access journals - launched 2011

14 OA journals in English / Arabic

14 OA journals in English / Arabic

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Open access adoption in Arab states is weaker than other regions/nations
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Arab states face many challenges with respect to OA
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Arab world has witnessed various OA initiatives in the last couple of years
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Several countries are investing more in R&D therefore enabling a change in scientific landscape